SEA of Visibility: The Voyage, Curated by Anu Annam

AUGUST 6 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

CURATORIAL BRIEF:
The tides of life can cause intense experiences that shape one’s character and worldview, seemingly silently, when, in actuality, there is a significant personal voyage involved.

A mental health crisis, a loved one who is suffering from ailments, or grief from losing someone can cause a life transformation that erodes the illusion of invincibility and reveals a healthy humility. The struggle to survive and silencing due to stigma can make these rich, vibrant, introspective stories—our stories—invisible, leaving sufferers segregated from “normal” society and unable to connect or ask for help when needed. The isolation created due to this can be as harrowing as being stranded in a vast, sometimes tumultuous, ocean.

SEA of Visibility brings these visual stories safely to shore. We give voice to our own hero’s journey by choosing to exhibit our diverse, compelling voyages through our deeply personal arts, that can be thought-provoking, sad, joyful, scary, and sometimes, in the most unexpected times, even funny. The exhibit, “SEA of Visibility: The Voyage” –a visual narrative–welcomes you to add your vision, your voice, and your voyage, making the invisible, visible, so the story of our collective struggle can be found, and the very specific connection for healing and integration can be made.

*Home page image: Scorned Sea by Tiffany Asadourian

Participating Artists: Anu Annam, Tiffany Asadourian, Leila Atkinson, Robyn Bellospirito, Angelo Blanda, Jae ‘JQ’ Breslow, John Cino, Patty Eljaiek, Sueey Gutierrez, Regina Halliday, Andrew Hornberger, Roya Jenner, Maya Kawachi, Christophe Lima, Gina Mars, Margaret Minardi, Loretta Oberheim, Mark Propper, Dr. Nichelle Rivers, Devlin Starr, Robert Stenzel, Chloe Wheeler

For more information on the artists and their work click here to view the artists book.

SEA of Visibility is an organization based in Long Island, NY that embraces our multicultural, queer, and disabled artists and our allies, focusing on neurodiversity and mental health. It “Supports Expression through the Arts” (SEA) and promotes destigmatization and integration through multidisciplinary art exhibitions, performances, and art-making programs—broadening the public’s vision on what mental illness is.

SEA of Visibility and SEA of Visibility Integrative Arts Education are currently conducting virtual and in-person visual and performing arts events as well as classes to nurture the artistic talent and personal connections in our community. We focus on the mental health of queer, BIPOC, AAPI, and otherwise neurodiverse folks because our cultures and gripes vary greatly from each other and are apart from mainstream American culture. We have thus far been offered humorless solutions for mental health that are mainly directed at straight, white, abled people. Many of us can’t use these solutions. Some of our cultures don’t even believe mental illness exists as a medical condition. Those of us who are queer are even incorrectly diagnosed as a medical condition. We choose to exhibit our diverse, compelling voyages through our deeply personal arts, that can be thought-provoking, sad, scary, and sometimes in the most unexpected times, funny.

With additional support from Main St. Benefactor Members
Beth and Charles Levinthal
Dr. Kay Hutchins Sato  
Bette and Paul Schneiderman